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Thursday, 27 September 2012

Apparently
you can put a price on childhood
memories. Last
weekend, an important part of my youth was sold for $80. Yes, this was probably
more than four hardly-working guitars and half a beaten up drum set are worth,
but it won’t stop some part of me from feeling a little.....Discounted.

Each item, a precious
gem from my rock band phase that served as an outlet for my sometimes
overabundance of teenage angst, disappeared at a family garage sale last
weekend. I was overdue to part with them, but it didn’t mean some emotional
pain wasn’t involved. In the meantime, we’re trying to sell the family house I
grew up in, which has my parents in a constant purging mode. Coupled with the
fact that half my family are closet hoarders, an abundance of crap has just
accumulated like some sort of nostalgic monster pooped a pile of useless
material in the basement. Strewn throughout this mess are things that I
probably haven’t looked at in over a decade: crudely taken photographs of trips
to camp during my childhood, a collection of ‘hot wheels’ toy cars with the
names of family members still scrawled over the bottoms and old letters to
lovers past.

At some point, every
young adult is faced with memorabilia from their past and has choose what the
hell to do with it. It can feel overwhelming and unfair, but that stuff isn’t just stuff – it’s a part of who you are and where you came from. It has
a history captured within it and creeps to the depths of the chasm of your
brain where old, dusty memories have been waiting reoccupy your consciousness.
As I revisit my youth in flashes of remembering who gave me what and why my mom
held onto stacks of my journals from grade school I can’t help but pause and
think about childhood, innocence and where the hell I lost it.

It’s hardly enough to
say that I’ve experienced a ‘blast from the past’ because something else
happens when you go that far back;
everything in between also finds its way into your thoughts, and you inevitably
begin to measure yourself against your challenges, failures and successes. This
lesson in self-reflection isn’t just about looking back on the path you’ve
made. It’s also about starting off in a completely different direction, perhaps
even bushwhacking through some completely unexplored place that’s ridden with
new bugs and crawlies.

One thing is for sure:
if 24 year old Aaron can sell 16 year old Aaron’s most prized possessions,
something has changed in those eight years, and I have a feeling it’s not just
the drums.

Sunday, 16 September 2012

BC’s capitol is a city with
multiple personalities. The duality of Victoria is almost plainly obvious: young and hip
university students occupy the tapa bars and trendy pubs inside Bastion Square at
night; the same crowd flocks to the beaches of Cadboro Bay
in the summer days while cooping in the UVic campus during chillier weather.
The inner harbor is a hotbed of high-waisted camera toting tourists while
Victoria West boasts one of the largest retirement communities in Canada. We can
only gather one simple conclusion amidst this chaotic collusion of
demographics: Victoria
is a clusterfuck that thrives on its own clusterfuck-ness, which also makes it
a great city to see (if you do it right).

I’ll admit my
first impressions of this city with a severe identity crisis weren’t all that
wonderful. I could see the same old formula of over-priced everything (Victoria is currently ranked the 4th mostexpensive city in Canada) and a mishmash of sub-par attractions designed to
make visitors feel as if what they just saw was accurate and representative of
the island at large. But there’s another side of this city that actually stakes
some uniqueness amongst the repetition, and it can be found in the most unusual
of places. Here are just a few examples I found worthy of this category during the
two occasions I’ve had to explore Victoria
(exploria?):

1) Chow Down at ‘Red-Fish-Blue-Fish’

Not-so-tucked-away
fish eatery Red-Fish-Blue-Fish is a
prized part of Victoria’s Inner Harbor, and it’s not too hard to find: just
follow the sometimes endless line-up of locals and visitors alike who are
looking to stuff themselves stupid on BC’s finest. What was once a shipping
container that held a Lamborghini in a previous life is now a retrofitted fish
fry kitchen serving up some of the most creative fish dishes around, including
Fish Tacones and something called a ‘cod dog’: a tempura battered and deep
fried slice of cod wrapped in a bakery bun topped with dill dijon mayo, tartar sauce
and pickled onions.

What makes this
popular spot so special are the
efforts managers take to ensure that every fish they prepare has been locally
sourced and is not at risk of extinction. This means your stomach and your conscience can feel awesome
after devouring that halibut and chips sold to you by the good people at
Red-Fish-Blue-Fish. They’ve even been featured on the popular Food Network
Channel T.V show Eat Street as ‘oneof the best places to eat in Victoria’.

2) Explore Fort Rodd Hill

If there’s one
thing that sums up Canada’s Pacific Southwest best it’s the lighthouse. Luckily
for those visiting Victoria, the National Historic Site of Fort Rodd Hill
includes one of the most iconic lighthouses in Canada and offers an excellent
window into the history of the area pre-dating early 1900’s. At Fort Rodd Hill,
visitors can learn about the artillery (which still stands) that was built to
protect Victoria while exploring the many underground passageways and batteries
that were constructed over a century ago.

Those less
intrigued by military posts can walk to the Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse,
which rests over the picturesque Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Olympic
Mountains providing a breathtaking backdrop. Full battle uniforms, fake gun
noises and the occasional shouting ‘ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND!’ are
optional.

3) Get Inked

Fresh fish and lighthouses
too ‘recreational’ for your tastes? Why not etch something permanently into your
skin instead? The good people at Tattoo
Zoo are more than happy to make this happen. Something about traveling and
the ocean makes many, many people want to do this. Yeah, that list includes me,
too. Apparently.

Apparently.

4) Check out the World Class
Vegetarian Food

Despite its copious
amounts of tourist-centered diners, Victoria is surprisingly over-friendly when
it comes to options for herbivores. I’ve already profiled a fish and chips
place that was so good it convinced this vegetarian to go temporarily carnivorous,
but there’s also the mouth-watering meat-free fare that made me forget how good
the sea creatures tasted. Firstly, I had one incredible pizza at a place called
The Joint on Wharf Street. I mean,
this was an uncontrollably rabid-inducing experience that I had with the ‘vegetarian
taco’ pizza I think I might have blacked out over. Then there are places like
ReBar in Bastion Square with its homemade enchiladas or Lady Marmalade, which
served us some unforgettable BBQ Tofu sandwiches. Whatever your preferences,
Victoria offers great green cuisine that is second to none (if you look in the
right places).

5) Take a Romantic Stroll in
Beacon Hill

Beacon Hill Park
is located conveniently due South of downtown (only a 10-15 min walk away) and
attracts many different kinds of people year round. Compared to the innate trashiness
of most urban parks in Canada, Beacon Hill is a stunningly tranquil homage to
the perfect integration of nature and city. Close to the hustle and bustle of central
Victoria, you’ll forget that you are surrounded by an entire city and instead
become incased by wild blackberry bushes and fields of low growth plants beside
lush deposits of Coastal Western Red Cedar Forests.

It’s also a
great place to take a lady-friend. You might just get lucky and steal a kiss
(or more….*wink wink) beneath a setting sun from the vantage point of the rocky
cliffs which line the ocean shore. Ladies love that shit.

Monday, 10 September 2012

Last week, I posted an article on the pangs of a little thing called reverse culture shock.
It was a powerfully relevant topic for me (and still is) as I attempt to find
my place in the big city of Toronto (my hometown) after spending four months in
east Jesus nowhere. Of course, it isn’t my first time transporting myself back
and forth across the country like some transient vagabond, and although reverse
culture shock is a thing that happens no matter how many times you do this,
I’ve built a nice toolbox of what are referred to as coping mechanisms to make it plenty easier.

This is me on a bus ride through hell.

This week, I’d like to share what I’ve
learned from said experiences and talk about what exactly I do when faced with such daunting transitions. Consider this the solutions part of the subject, and
hopefully I can generalize it enough to keep it accessible to the masses. Here
are my six best Tips and Tricks for
Re-integration:

1) Be prepared

It’s the goddamn Scout’s motto, for
Christ’s sake. Any adult who was forced to wear a handkerchief tied to the
collar of a starched grey uniform complete with the world’s most
fashion-forward sash can recite these two imminently powerful words without giving
a moment’s thought, because if there’s one awesome thing we learned from Scouts
(and there were many), it’d be that if you can’t prepare yourself for the
challenges of tomorrow, you’ll end up losing harder than those three
South-Asian badminton teams who each wanted to suck on purpose so badly they
ended up being kicked out of the Olympics. Also, that sentence was so
incredibly run-on I am doing nothing to fix it.

Scouts: The new Vogue?

The same theory used by Scouts applies
here; start by realistically
envisioning what coming home will be like. What challenges will you face? Who
can you rely on for support? What resources will you have directly at
hand? Start doing this well before
departure. The earlier, the better; you’ll find that mentally preparing
yourself for coming home will lead to even more constructive solutions (see
below).

2) Find the
Familiar

It’s easy to get lost in places that are
confusing and different. This may be the case after returning to your
home-city/town/place after travelling for a bit. What may be the difference
between ‘keeping it together’ and ‘total insanity’ is your ability to latch
onto things that remind you of your incredible experience while you were away.
Finding these connections may be difficult, but they will provide you with
happy thoughts if you do it correctly. Some suggestions: get involved in a
community-based organization that is affiliated with where you went or host
your own seminar/presentation on the most important aspects of your experience.
If people around you can better understand what you are missing, they can in
turn better support you while you try to get back into the swing of things at
home.

3)
Surround Yourself with Good People

Pictured: Someone NOT to be friends with

Further to what I just stated above,
none of this will work unless you are friends with the right people. Douchebags
aren’t included in this list. This might mean that some people who were your
friends before you left have to be ‘cut from the team’, but in the long term
you are actually just making it easier on yourself by staying connected to
those who really know you, or who are
at least interested in getting to know the you
that has just spent hella-long times in a very faraway place.

Your support system is only as strong as
you make it, and it’s time to enact some important executive decisions. Hold
your ground, Little Foot, and you’ll grow into a strong dinosaur.

Kids who were born after '98 totally won't get that reference.

4)
Use Your Humor

They say ‘a smile means the same in every
language’, except Braille. Maybe I made that last part up, but if fully blind
people can’t read this anyway, does that make it offensive?

If a tree falls in the woods.......?

Also, don't be friends with those that do the 'duck face'.

My humor could be described as often
borderline distasteful, but without it I’d be in trouble. Humor is an amazing
tool when it comes to staying mentally stable, especially in times of intense
change. Learn how to make yourself laugh and you’ll know a great way to
instantly flip your mood; find a way to laugh
at yourself and it works even better. Self-deprecation helps you to
understand that the things you may be getting upset over are actually quite
arbitrary. From this you will realize that much of what is bothering you as you
attempt to re-integrate is actually not worth ruminating over in the first
place. See how it works? The collateral effects of using your humor (especially
on yourself) are wonderful, so turn
that frown upside down, or at least semi-circle duck-faced sausage-like, then
go look in the mirror and complete the process.

5)
Keep Busy!

In the wise words of my Grandma: “busy
hands are happy hands”. It’s as if she’s Yoda.....As in ‘YO DA BEST, GRANDMA!’

Part of your ‘being prepared’ phase
should include organizing activities for yourself to partake in when you get
back. This will allow you to stay occupied and (hopefully) become actively
connected to your community. Much of what causes reverse culture shock
manifests itself when you are idle for a long period of time. Keeping a regular
schedule and consistency in your plans can and will mitigate the more serious
side effects.

6)
Tell Your Story

Ahhhhh sheeeit, it's story time bitches!

Remember story time, that magical hour in grade school when your teacher
would wisp you away to mystical lands and epic journeys complete with plot
lines probably written by authors who were on a serious lifelong acid trip?
Sure you do, because it was the most awesome part of school. We happen to be
highly-evolved creatures with an immense capacity for imagination and narrative
creativity. But telling a story is an art, which means you can suck at it
pretty badly at it if you don’t know how to incorporate a bit of creativity.

Chances are that reciting your travel
log verbatim to your friends and family won’t quite capture an audience of interested
followers (trust me on this), and you’re going to have to find a way to tell
your story without making the recipients want to dunk their heads into a bath
of poison. The best part is that once you find that perfect balance of storytelling
meets entertainment, you’ve got a reasonable outlet to share those experiences
to people who actually want to hear them.
Congratulations! You’ve achieved rockstar re-integrated status!

Monday, 3 September 2012

You’ve
probably heard of ‘culture shock’; the phenomena that happens when you are
inundated with new things, usually accompanied by travelling to a new place,
resulting in a complete shutdown of your senses. Change is good, but when your
body is being relentlessly bombarded by smells, sights, sounds and physical
feelings that are completely foreign to it, your brain will consequently be all
like ‘fuck this shit, I’m out’.

Kind of like this.

Anyone
who has up and left home to experience a new place – perhaps a different
country or town – will tell you that these big transitions take time, and
exactly how hard it can be is
directly related to the strength of your ability to adapt. Now think about doing
the opposite: you’ve spent a considerable amount of time being submersed in a
culture that is no longer new to you. After completely adopting the customs of
this place you are eventually accepted into the community and have reached the
point where what was once scary and new is now completely normal to you. Congratulations – you have officially integrated
yourself, after all of that hard work and in a place that once terrified you to
your core.

Now
for something equally as shitty and twice as unexpected: going back home. Of course, you know this
place like the back of your hand. Maybe you’ve grown up here; spent most of
your life being a part of this place....It will be a breeze to get back into
life back home, right?

Wrong.

Reverse
culture shock begins here. Suddenly, things that were familiar to you after you
left just aren’t the same. The people you were closest to now seem like strangers
and everything you’ve learned while travelling doesn’t apply here. You’re
stuck, and the fact that you actually have no idea what is going on again hits you smack in the face. Alas,
the four not so easy stages of
reverse culture shock have begun:

Honeymooning

Your
plane lands in your home city as you excitedly step off the platform after a
long absence into a world once recognizable. Although you don’t feel panicked
or isolated yet, you wear an invisible veil of happy-go-lucky peachy keen-ness.
You are ready to accept your pedestal of awesomeness as you have become a world
traveller and everyone will think
that makes you instantly cool.

This
is arguably the most annoying time for your friends. You will take any
opportunity to tell a story about how the donkeys woke you up every morning, or
how you visited a Buddhist Monk who helped you find inner peace, or whatever
vacantly dull anecdote you absently think is relevant to the situation. Life is
awesome for someone who has seen the world.

Storming

Just
kidding, life sucks. Your honeymooning phase is over before it began, and you
are quickly coming to the realization that what you considered to be your home has now turned into one of those
borderline creepy clown houses at the fair where everyone is wearing
badly-drawn face paint and the smell of Listerine and shame lingers in the air.
You now understand that nobody wants to hear your travel stories, and instead
of waiting around for your glorious return, everyone and everything has
continued on without you.

WELCOME HOME.

What’s
worse is that while you were away, you became so wrapped up in the culture of
your host community that you completely
forgot how to live back home. You desperately try to find a way to apply
what you’ve learned over the past months, but the attempts prove futile and you
long for the familiarity of that other seemingly faraway place. Many people in
this stage tend to cocoon themselves in a fortress of anger or resentment;
others struggle with issues of anxiety or depression. Storming is the hardest stage
in reverse culture shock.

Norming

Although
it may have been hard to grasp during the process, the storming phase does not
last forever, although its longevity is different for everyone and relates to
how well you can use (or not use)
your resources. You begin norming when the intense feelings associated with
storming begin to fade and you find ways to cope with the transition of being
home.

Above: reasons NOT to come home

A
big part of norming is discovering a space where you feel comfortable and
accepted. Just like you needed to be part of a community while away, you now
need to relocate yourself into somewhere that makes sense and offers you the right kind of support. Oftentimes, our
social circles will completely change over the course of leaving home for a
prolonged period of time and returning again, and this is probably because you have also changed significantly.
What’s cool about this stage is that you can actually begin to somewhat measure
the impact of travelling, often with very positive results.

Performing

Performing
is the ultimate result of reverse culture shock, and thank god it’s awesome
because the rest of it sucked ass. You may not reach this part until over a
year after your return, so don’t expect to blow through the first three immediately
upon arrivial. The good news: no matter what happened, you are better and
stronger for it. Experiencing reverse culture shock is an intense learning
curve, and one that you won’t ever forget. It will help you the next time you
travel and mitigate its effects.

....And some things will never change.

While
the prevalence of reverse culture shock never quite fades (no matter how many
times you travel), the more you experience it, the more you develop coping
strategies that will ease you through it. When you perform, you can look back
and find the positives of each challenge, for you are now comfortable and
content because you have made the necessity changes that keep you stable. You
have found a reasonable outlet to discuss your experiences, having a conversation about it rather than a lecture. Things sure look different from
how it was before you left, but in a way that tells you you’re always changing.

Reverse
culture shock effects everyone differently and has different timelines because
of it. Some people may experience the same step twice, skip a step or relapse
back into a bad habit. The trick is finding the right tools to help you though,
something I’ll exemplify in my next post.

Welcome to lost and found!

I'm glad you've found your way over. This blog is maintained and operated by Aaron Turpin and cronicles the activities of a Student-Employee/Traveller/Creative Thinker. Check out what I've been up to lately by cruising the various tabs above and reading the posts. Leave a comment if you wish!

About Me

I am a curious person by nature and have an immense passion for learning and new experiences. Travelling and stepping out of my comfort bubble are huge parts of my life. I try to live creatively with everything I do while supporting the global community as both a leader and a student.